ive worked in my current job on Vauxhall Bridge road for a year, and always used the bike parks.
There was always bikes parked on the footpath outside buildings etc, but could never understand y they didnt get tickets.
found out, that because the pavement surface changed, the little patch near the buildings is actually privately owned, which is why the bikes could park there without getting tickets…
This week, started parking outside my office, same as everyone else, was fine for few days till this morning- no bikes
just as i park, another biker from next door comes and tells me theyve changed the rules- althought the changed surface represents private land, theyre now starting to dish out the tickets regardless!! so yesterday, there were about 5 bikes this guy counted, who have parked there for mths without bother, now had tickets…
Suspect it is another revenue earner for the council. Problem is people will moan about it but pay, query the fine and you will most likely get off. The council knows that apethy pays in more ways than one.
The money grabbing Dykes! If they provided enough space in the bike bays then people wouldn’t need to park on the pavement… Grr.
Well down in Pudding Lane there is a m/c bay and all the bike’s there had tickets on them a couple of days ago. The bikes are there from about 7.30am onwards. Well the traffic warden of the Corporation of London suspended the bay at 8:15am or so and slapped tickets on every single one of those bikes. There are drainage works being carried out and therefore plant vehicles need access, which I can understand, but there was no forewarning at all. Cheeky gits ay!
I did hear that if the road has double yellow or red lines for example, then that is applicabale right up to the face of the buildings, however as the pavement surface changes here, its obviously privately owned, but they must have found some loop hole!
I think it’s Westminster City Council trying their luck…
No they haven’t - private land is private land they have no jursidction over bikes parked on it.
It’s just some gobsh*te traffic warden who’s trying it on as he/she has their eye on this months special prize for whoever dishes out the most tickets, most people will assume they’re in the wrong & meekly pay up.
Call the council now & shout at them !
This is an arguement over rights of way.
Just because a piece of pavement is private property, unless it has some way of restricting public access such as a chain or a sign for the purposes of PCN’s it is considered a right of way.
You then get a PCN for blocking a right of way or some such nonsense.
A case regarding this went through PATAS a few years back and was upheld so now its open season until someone takes it to judicial review.
You could always arrest the parking attendant for criminal trespass, that would rather muddy the water. 
Had somthing like this last year, went to a freinds house round the back of piccadilly, parked on a small strip of land about 2 foot wide 10 foot long right outside his closed garage door… got a ticket, contested it saying it was on private land, got a reply saying my wheel was on the road and also causing an obstruction… i replyed with…rubbish, my wheel was not on the road and if it was send me the pictures to prove it…and for the obstruction…how do you work that out, it was a house at the end of a mews so who was it obstructing apart from the people that lived in the house i was visting?..got a reply saying…i had to cross thier land to gane acsess to the private land… (blood boiling now
)… replyed with… are you all fucking idiots…? this is an entrance to a gararge…wheres the pavment???
“oh… ok we see now… on this instance we will retract the PNC”
dam right you will…
moral of this story…ALWAYS ALWAYS CONTEST A TICKET… there are far to many dogey tickets being slapped on just on the off chance you pay it without bothering to challenge it…
The ruling is about whether the “public normally have access”, so if you park on for example a celler light outside your office, if this is a “natural” part of the pavement then the public would normally have access and you will get a ticket, if there is any mean of stopping the public accessing the land or the public would have to go out of their way to gain access to the land you should be Ok to park there
An interesting legal argument would be that the bike is preventing unlawful access and is fulfilling a lawful role by being there, don’t know how you’d get on with that though.
